Florida's "Museums In The Sea"

Florida's Underwater Archaeological Preserves

Welcome to the Florida “Museums in the Sea” website. Here you will find information about all of Florida’s Underwater Archaeological Preserves. Click on the name of a ship to explore the remains located at that site.

USS Massachusetts

The 350-foot long battleship USS Massachusetts, resting beneath the waters of Pensacola Pass, became the fourth Underwater Preserve in June 1993.

SS Tarpon

Dedicated in the Spring of 1997, SS Tarpon was a steamer that went down in a storm off of the coast of Panama City Beach in 1937.

Vamar

The ninth preserve, Vamar sailed to Antartica with Rear-Admiral Richard Byrd under the name Eleanor Bolling, eventually wrecking under mysterious circumstances in WWII-era Port St. Joe.

City of Hawkinsville

City of Hawkinsville, located in Old Town, was a Suwannee River steamboat sunk in the 1920s. In 1992 this underwater park became the third Preserve in the state of Florida.

USS Narcissus

Florida’s twelfth Underwater Archaeological Preserve, USS Narcissus was lost with all hands off Egmont Key in January of 1866.

Regina

The steel steamer, Regina, built in 1904, was returning from Havana In 1940, when it sank off the coast of Bradenton Beach, becoming the state's tenth preserve.

San Pedro

In April 1989, a second Underwater Preserve was opened at the site of San Pedro, a galleon of the 1733 Spanish Plate Fleet that was wrecked in the Florida Keys near Islamorada.

Half Moon

Terry Helmers, a Miami diver, nominated Half Moon to become Florida’s seventh Preserve. Located on a shallow, sandy shoal just off Key Biscayne lies the German sailing yacht with an exciting past.

SS Copenhagen

Florida’s fifth Preserve, the steamer SS Copenhagen, crashed into a reef on the Pompano Ledge in 1900. This addition to the Preserve system was dedicated in June 1994.

Lofthus

Florida “Museums in the Sea”
Before wrecking off Manalapan in 1898, the eighth Preserve Lofthus traveled the world as a merchant ship, attempting to avoid pirates with her painted-on gunports.

Georges Valentine

Florida “Museums in the Sea”
The steel-hulled Italian barkentine, Georges Valentine, was loaded with a cargo of lumber when it sank during a violent storm in 1904.

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Urca de Lima

Urca de Lima was part of the fabled 1715 Spanish treasure fleet that sank during a hurricane off present-day Ft. Pierce.